Ohio State football names new director of player personnel, director of recruiting
New additions to Ryan Day’s Ohio State football coaching staff have been revealed. Zach Grant will serve as the Buckeyes’ director of player personnel, while Nick Murphy will be Ohio State’s director of recruiting strategy.
Grant, who will work under Mark Pantoni, comes from Western Kentucky, where he led the Hilltoppers’ recruiting efforts as the general manager of the football program. Grant joined the program in 2017 as the director of player personnel.
“Dear Hilltopper Nation, Thank you for five amazing years!” Grant’s farewell post to WKU read. “I can’t thank coach (Tyson) Helton, coach (Mike) Sanford, Nick Uhlenhopp, Todd Stewart and many others enough for the opportunity of a lifetime. WKU is filled with special people who are obsessed with becoming the best. There is no better culture than what Coach Helton has built. Every person from player to coach to support staff is doing whatever it takes to win football games the right way and develop young men. The people have molded me personally into who I am today. Thank you so much.”
“To the players, I’m so impressed with your desire to reach your potential individually and, more importantly, as a team. You guys will make this program what it is. It is rare to have a group so devoted to a common goal. Don’t take that for granted. Special things are ahead for this group. You know what you have to do. Go finish the job.
The hire of Grant comes several weeks after Weston Zernechel, Ohio State’s assistant director of player personnel of four seasons, was hired away by USC.
As for Murphy, he spent 2021 as Charlotte’s director of player personnel. He was previously on the 49ers staff in 2019 as a defensive graduate assistant.
“So excited to join the staff at The Ohio State University!” Murphy wrote in a tweet. “Can’t wait to carry on the excellence and winning tradition of this flagship university! Tap in with your boy, and Go Bucks!”
Among other staffing changes of late, the Buckeyes in December, made a splash hire when Day hired away Oklahoma State defensive coordinator Jim Knowles — Knowles oversaw a stout Cowboys defense in 2021 that helped the team reach the Big 12 Championship Game — to the same role in Columbus. Kerry Coombs, who served as Ohio State’s defensive coordinator the past two seasons but lost play-calling midway through the 2021 season, mutually parted ways with the university in January.
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